Data colonialism: Rethinking big data’s relation to the contemporary subject
数据殖民主义：重新思考大数据与当代主体的关系
Author: Nick Couldry（尼克·库尔德里）、Ulises A. Mejias（乌利塞斯·A. 梅希亚斯）
Source：《Television & New Media》 2019 Volume20 Issue4
Abstract: We are often told that data are the new oil. But unlike oil, data are not a substance found in nature. It must be appropriated. The capture and processing of social data unfolds through a process we call data relations, which ensures the “natural” conversion of daily life into a data stream. The result is nothing less than a new social order, based on continuous tracking, and offering unprecedented new opportunities for social discrimination and behavioral influence. We propose that this process is best understood through the history of colonialism. Thus, data relations enact a new form of data colonialism, normalizing the exploitation of human beings through data, just as historic colonialism appropriated territory and resources and ruled subjects for profit. Data colonialism paves the way for a new stage of capitalism whose outlines we only glimpse: the capitalization of life without limit.
文摘：常有人说，数据是新时代的石油。但与石油不同，数据并非自然界中存在的物质，它必须被攫取。社会数据的捕获与处理通过我们称之为“数据关系”的过程展开，该过程确保了日常生活向数据流的“自然”转化。其结果无异于一种建立在持续追踪基础之上的新社会秩序，为社会歧视和行为影响提供了前所未有的新机遇。我们提出，这一过程通过殖民主义的历史最能得到理解。因此，数据关系实施了一种新形式的数据殖民主义，使通过数据对人类的剥削正常化，正如历史上的殖民主义为了利润而掠夺领土与资源并统治臣民一样。数据殖民主义为资本主义的一个新阶段铺平了道路，我们目前仅能瞥见其轮廓：即生命的无限资本化。
Keywords: capitalism; colonialism; data; media infrastructure; political economy; postcolonialism
编译：任艳林、刘鑫
